Intel teams up with GE to help old people

GE and Intel are to combine forces to help old people like me make it in the 21st century.

The bright idea is a 50/50 joint venture (JV) aimed at telehealth and independent living, and the new company has, so far no name. Or if it has, it has slipped my mind. It has a CEO though. What’s his name again?

Intel and GE already have a “relationship” – they’re not married to each other unless that’s slipped my mind too – since April 2009. The goal is to use tech to bring better healthcare into millions of homes and to better the lives of old people like me and Paul Otellini who is almost my age.

According to Intel, “there is a dramatic increase of people living with chronic conditions and a global ageing population”, so there’s a real need to help people that are old.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt said that controlling health care costs to an increasingly ageing population is a “global challenge”.

Louis Burns, VP and GM of Intel’s Digital Health Group will be CEO of the new company while Omar Ishrak, president and CEO of GE Healthcare will be the chairman of the board.

This is obviously an American JV – its HQ will be in the capital of California, Sacramento. Non-American healthcare is really quite a bit of a worry too – the demographics show that “advanced nations” will develop older citizens. China has a problem because of the one baby per family policy, while India has a problem persuading good citizens to wear a condom or have vasectomies.

India, like China, a developing economy, will have a bigger population any day now. Louis Burns (pictured) is always looking at his watch, as we reported in the other other place, the inqster. Intel is only in it for one thing, selling more chips. But that’s OK, long as the chips are not too expensive. Or has something slipped my mind?